It's been a good week for BHP, which also managed to resolve a long-running pollution dispute and gain approval for another oil joint venture. Last year's merger has left the Anglo-Australian company in a strong position to invest in new markets and distance itself from old mistakes. If it carries on as it has, BHP is set for a strong future.

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Alcoa's poor results were expected, as the aluminum industry is in dire straits at present. Overcapacity and lack of demand have combined to keep prices and sales low, and the company's cost-cutting efforts were never going to make up for this. Alcoa is well run, and will benefit when the industry improves - but this may not be for some time.

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When Corus was formed in 1999, it hoped to grow by diversifying from steel - but a corporate rethink has overturned these plans. Not only is the firm now spinning off its non-steel businesses, it's merging with Brazil's CSN, thereby guaranteeing ore supplies. It's not clear that heavy exposure to a rickety economy is the best way of hedging commodity price risk, however.

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Germany and France will be allowed to spend an additional combined amount of E2.5 billion in state aid to the two countries' coal industries. This is designed to reduce the significant remaining overcapacity in Europe's coal production while tempering the social cost of pit closures.

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Low wholesale power prices are adversely affecting the UK coal industry; having ruled out further investment, AEP is now searching for other ways to reduce costs. With imported coal cheaper than that from the UK, increasing imports seems inevitable. Although this is bad news for UK coal, it does at least confirm AEP's commitment to stay in the UK power and coal markets.

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Gold prices have recently reached seven-year highs, at a time when capital markets are showing recovery, which contradicts convictions on the timing of bullion rises. As a stabilizing influence on investment portfolios, investment managers would serve their clients well by reviewing exposure to this impressive growth.

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The Japanese-backed Western Australian iron ore producer Murchison Metals has launched a hostile takeover bid for its main competitor Midwest, which is backed by Chinese interests, and comes in the wake of the western Australian government announcing a limited tender for building a port to ship iron ore. If successful, the deal is expected to provide substantial savings for the two companies.

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Declines in the Baltic Dry Index and international air cargo volumes, along with forecasts of weak crude oil demand until 2012, have raised questions over various claims of a quicker-than-expected global economic recovery. Despite the recent rally in the stock market brought on by these claims, these new announcements indicate that a full recovery is still a long way off.

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Some of the world's biggest banks will make it increasingly difficult for companies involved in controversial industries to get funding for future projects. Growing environmental scrutiny is making it harder for lenders to finance polluting industries without suffering a blow to their reputation, but a continued focus on profit means improved lending for green ventures is far from guaranteed.

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Global metal prices have risen by 150%, largely due to the closure of illegal antimony mines in China because of health and safety reasons, logistical problems and government intervention. While this may not be good news for traders, higher metal prices may incentivize China and other countries with rich reserves of antimony to mine the rare material in a more sustainable and safer manner.